Author: brianlaurance

When Sydney and the bush meet now
There is antipathy
And fashionable suburbs float
at night, far out to sea

Aussie bush poet Les Murray is well conversant with this most iconic of Australian cities. We’ve been here but 48 hours with Julie and Graham in this charismatically wonderful metropolis; lunch at the country club in Terrey Hills, dinners in Chatswood (Terrazza) and North Ryde (Stanford Hotel) and a lazy afternoon at Mooney Mooney workers club on the Hawkesbury river. However, we do admit that Dr Moseley’s diet and fasting method has been put on hold until we get home.
Pictures are not all that good, but we have had a terrific time as we usually do with Julie and Graham.
Sydney sandstone, pretty as a picture, boats bobbing at Bobbin Head, trying to keep fingers off the lens and Julie and Graham’s new home nearing completion at The Landings.

Like the man on the Boston subway.
No! He never returned and his fate is still unlearned!
Similarly, this morning, we took a right turn off the Captain Cook highway into Palm Cove.
And they never returned, no they never returned and their fate is still unlearned
Last blog pictures of the beach, the 3rd floor verandah and lunch.

We had lunch in the gardens cafe yesterday with the Howes and as it was showery then, we went back today to find a feast of flowers and exotic tropical plants.

In an earlier post I said the last time I was in Townsville was 25 years ago (a guess!) for yesterday in Cairns we met up with Dennis and Valerie Howe, who moved here 26 years ago.
Not a bad guess eh?
Therefore it really was quarter of a century since I have been to Queensland’s north, catching up with then self confessed ‘drop-outs’ from the down south fast lane.
Dennis as the boss of Skywest Airlines was my first PR client, until he moved to Sydney to run East West Airlines and fairly quickly he got head-hunted to be number 2 at Australian Airlines. But the culture shock of life at the former TAA and the spotted bow tie types, soon had them beat a hasty retreat to seek a new life in idyllic Cairns.
They have had a number of very successful businesses here in the tropics and now live in a halcyon, picturesque and bucolic part of the city which is a gem.

An idyllic locale on the northern Queensland coast; Mission Beach cosseted between mountains and Dunk Island in the Coral Sea and ours for a couple of nights.
We spent an entire day of the first floor verandah of our unit, buying all our grub for 2 days from the local Woolies, which allowed us the chance to spend all our time reading books and looking at the sea, while keeping an eye out for a stray Cassowary.
Since Hervey Bay we have traversed mile upon mile of sugar cane territory and near Tully bananas joined the mix. Simply magic!
And now we are on the road to Cairns, the tropics and perchance to hone our geography skills; Innisfail isn’t in North Queensland is it?
You bet it is!
Just ask the man in the big white hat. This area is the personal fiefdom of the member for Kennedy, big Bob Katter MP and the town is in two parts, old heritage and the newer Coles and Woolies which attracts opportunistic surrounding businesses and natty ring-road systems that makes any town expand.
Cairns, our ultimate destination on this journey, soon emerged and upon entering the city the navigator was on a rather protracted phone call to Allison, so driver instinct and intuition directed us straight to the Pacific International Hotel and our room on the 8th floor that is too big, even for a picture on the iPad.
We walked a fair bit of the CBD last night, with dinner up town and today we drove out to Kuranda and bumped into bent’ n ‘ twisted, Peter Jaensch, from the Galleria Markets, who now resides in this all-embracing market village.

I was last in Townsville about 25 years ago when Alan Bond converted Queenslanders’ from their favourite XXXX to Fosters, by printing ‘Bond Brewing 26 St George’s Tce, Perth’ on the drop that slaked a couple of million thirsts every day. The Victorian brew took over only until Power Brewery came up with the real McCoy.
We left ‘Camelot’ –Airlie Beach–(fine each day and only rains at night!) this morning, after spending a glorious day there and fine dining at dusk, overlooking the Coral Sea. With quick glances at the towns of Bowen and Ayer along the way we arrived at Jupiters Townsville about 2pm
Castle Hill, the giant rock, is still here, but the city has grown enormously since the last visit. As is our wont we also took the time to wander around Queens Gardens.

Like good cheese and wine, they both improve with age; similarly Queensland’s countryside scenery improves with each kilometre you travel north. We are now in Airlie Beach which is quite brilliant and a worthy contender for a full week on your bucket list.
The journey here was quite spectacular, enjoying more of the great ranges caressing the tablelands with mighty hectares of sugar cane.
Interestingly, we were intending to shoot thru from Mackay to Townsville, a marathon 450km on the ‘Bruce’ but there is an NRL Broncos Vs the Cowboys (whoever a team of blokes in ‘chaps’ might be) and absolutely no accommodation available.
We had been to Airlie Beach a couple of years ago on the Dawn Princess for a day and so this unexpected visit has been a joy and who knows, we might be back!
We are at the Coral Sea Resort. (I hope to learn how to do picture captions in the next few days!)

Gladstone was left in the wake of our dust around 9 this morning and by mid-morning it was time for elevenses…….and surprise surprise the old Rockhampton Post Office is now a Degani Bakery and Cafe of Melbourne fame. (See the 3 cheese omelette)
Travelling to Rocky was a horror stretch of the now infamous Bruce H’way and along the way a radio news bulletin quoted RACQ research which put the ‘Bruce’ as a 2 star highway in world rankings. (Ranked with 3rd world countries by my reckoning)
Did not see much on this first leg of the journey for dodging Mac trucks which were only interspersed with hundreds upon hundreds of serious Jayco/Land Cruiser inheritance guzzlers.
But from Rocky onwards we traversed stunning Great Dividing Range country; a land of plenty, with the richest dark loam soils encouraging mile upon mile of healthy sugar cane fields cresting the wind as they reached skyward. And the local Queensland Macadamia nut trees growing commercially in beautifully regimented row after row.
All of this on a tableland surrounded by the majestic ranges adorned in that ever wondrous eucalyptus blue hue.
Altogether a magical days travelling, covering 450 km on a vastly improved highway, only after we left Rocky. Tonight we are relaxing in a 6th floor apartment overlooking the city of Mackay in readiness for a quick change and dinner up-town

Although Gladstone is not exactly a place you would want to put on your bucket list, today we really enjoyed our drive from Hervey Bay, avoiding the Bruce Highway travelling thru Childers, Bundaberg, Rosedale and Miriam Vale on the Tableland Road; a huge blue dome of sunshine skies presented the nearby hills in ‘eucalypt blue hues’ until we arrived at Gladstone, and dinner at the local Yacht Club at dusk.
Wikipedia tells us the of the famous people from Childers is Margaret (Mollie) Laurance (nee Kirk) simply born at the little township before her family moved to nearby Bundaberg.
Tomorrow, Isabel says we are heading for Rockhampton and Yeppoon. Quite a task and so unlike travelling the Nullabor where you can easily do a thousand km in a day!!